Monday, 23 August 2010

Vegan Meetups?

While in Japan on vacation I attended a "vegan meetup".

Vegan meetups are run through a website, www.meetup.com, which (for a small fee) facilitates meetups automatically between interest groups around the world. The site emails members of upcoming meetups, and allows them to RSVP, comment on meetups, and share photos afterwards.

A group of vegans in New Zealand ran these meetups from the same website a few years ago, however few new people came, so the website was of little help because it was just a group of vegan friends meeting for lunch or dinner. However, in Japan, the meetups are very popular, and the one I attended had about 50 people. Some were vegan, some vegetarian, some people who came because they were interested in veg'nism, and some people even came just because they like the food so much!

What it would need would be enough interested people to come (perhaps about 10 to get it started) and to promote it among their friends, on facebook, blogs etc, but more importantly, a venue. From my limited experience, it works best if there venue puts on a buffet meal with lots of standing room, so people move around and talk to each other.

Would there be any interest in vegan meetups in Taiwan? If you are interested, please leave a comment. Perhaps we can get something started?

The website for Tokyo vegan meetups is http://www.meetup.com/vegan-389/

The next Tokyo vegan meetup will be held at Deva Deva cafe. Last time I was in Japan I attended a similar vegan party there, and this was the buffet meal they put on. Best of all, I got to meet and talk to many Tokyo vegans. How does a Taipei vegan meetup sound?